this unpremeditated action won heartier applause than Christie ever
had received for her best rendering of more heroic deeds.

But she did not hear the cordial round they gave her. She had said
she would "make a hit or die;" and just then it seemed as if she had
done both, for she was deaf and blind to the admiration and the
sympathy bestowed upon her as the curtain fell on the first, last
benefit she ever was to have.






CHAPTER IV.

GOVERNESS.





MR. PHILIP FLETCHER.

DURING the next few weeks Christie learned the worth of many things
which she had valued very lightly until then. Health became a boon
too precious to be trifled with; life assumed a deeper significance
when death's shadow fell upon its light, and she discovered that
dependence might be made endurable by the sympathy of unsuspected
friends.